Hair brushes are currently available in a wide variety of forms and the present invention is primarily concerned with the type of hair brush in which a support is provided with a multiplicity of recesses or wells in each of which there is anchored a bunch of bristles of material of synthetic fiber so that the bristles extend generally perpendicular to the surface which is formed with the wells. Ohter type of brushes, e.g. those in which flexible elements are molded unitarily with a base, are not of particular interest for the purposes of the present invention.
Generally the bunches of bristles are anchored by cementing or other means in the respective wells and the wells and bunches of bristles extend in rows which may run parallel to each other and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the brush. The support formed with the wells may be molded from synthetic resin material or fabricated from wood with the wells being produced by drilling. It is particularly convenient to make the face of the support at which the wells open convex so that the brush movement can be a composite of a sweep of the brush through the hair and a rotation of the brush about its longitudinal axis to obtain deep penetration of the bristles and a uniform distribution of hairs over the array of the bristles.
One of the problems with brushes of the latter type, especially where the wells are not completely filled with an adhesive or anchoring medium is that hair gets caught between the walls of the wells or the edge of the latter at which the free ends of the bristles emerge, e.g. by virtue of being clamped between the bristles and this edge. When the bristles are stiff, hair also can be caught between the bristles at the zone of emergence from the well. With further movement of the brush the trapped hairs are pulled loose from the scalp. Another disadvantage is that these regions of the brush afford places in which scalp detritus, dirt and loose hairs can accumulate.
These disadvantages are most prevalent with hair brushes, i.e. where the bristles are relatively stiff. The reason for the increased problem with stiff bristles of hair brushes appears to be a result of the fact that directly upon emergence of the bristles from the well, the bristles are relatively rigid and hairs wedge between them.